As the largest of the United States government statistical agencies, the U.S. Census Bureau produces trillion of estimates each year that help guide business and policy decisions by public and private sector organizations and other users. These estimates are published in more than 140 individual monthly, quarterly, and annual censuses, surveys, and programs. They are released to the public using over 30 distinct Census Bureau data tools. Our data are also repackaged and presented by dozens of 3rd party businesses for use by their customers. While many data users primarily access the data they need from only one of these programs (using one of these data tools), an increasing number of users need information across multiple programs and tools. Combining these statistics across programs can often be difficult for users who are not familiar with U.S. Census Bureau programs and statistics in general.

This workshop will explore the organizational, cultural, and technical challenges the U.S. Census Bureau is facing today to make it easier for users to access data across these programs. We will also discuss the challenges users face to not only combine information across Census Bureau business and demographic programs but also to combine Census Bureau data with data from other statistical agencies and organizations. Many of these challenges are not unique to the U.S. Census Bureau... they are shared by statistical agencies across the globe.

The workshop will not only discuss these challenges but will also discuss the internal changes we are making to address our growing data user needs. We will also discuss how the Census Bureau is leveraging current and emerging data organization, dissemination, and presentation technologies to meet our users needs. Finally, this workshop will cover the challenges we are facing in continuing to meet the needs of our more experienced and longstanding data users (who are accustomed to the “old way” of disseminating our data) while also meeting the needs of data users who are new to the U.S. Census Bureau.